SYRACUSE SERVES SAN DIEGANS LUNCH BOTH ON AND OFF USS MIDWAY

Instead of spending some of their free time sightseeing in San Diego, Syracuse University basketball players served lunch to the homeless the day before Sunday’s “Battle on the Midway.”

It truly had an impact on them, reports Neil Gold, one of several die-hard Syracuse fans who traveled to San Diego with the team, and joined players, coaches and cheerleaders in serving food at St. Vincent de Paul Village downtown.

Several visitors from Syracuse marveled at their chilly reception here. They weren’t referring to San Diegans, but rather the refrigerator temperatures. Oddly, it was warmer back home in Northern New York. Nonetheless, SU exec Charles Merrihew, out and about in shirt sleeves, was surprised to overhear a San Diego passer-by exclaim, “I can even wear my winter coat today.”

Wailing bar: Many longtime La Jollans are sad over the planned dismantling of Hotel La Valencia’s iconic Whaling Bar, a gathering spot for locals, literati, actors and other VIPs for decades. Just last July, a plaque was installed there in honor of late author Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss), a frequent visitor.

Now under new ownership, operators plan to remodel and update the traditional décor of the bar and its adjoining Café La Rue. Its signature whaling mural is expected to be exhibited in another location.

Local fan Chuck Buck laments the layoff of longtime staff and fears the loss of “the grander more elegant restaurant” of days gone by. “It’s time for the Last Supper,” says Buck, “because when the Whaling Bar is gone, it’s gone.”

Art alive: Some descendants of Depression-era artist Charles Reiffel were on hand for Saturday’s opening of a joint exhibit of Reiffel’s paintings at Balboa Park’s San Diego History Center and S.D. Museum of Art.

Wendi Taylor-Nations, whose great grandmother, Emma Barbara Reiffel, was Reiffel’s sister, came from Chicago with husband, Scott Nations, frequent CNBC commentator. Wendi’s grandmother, Josephine Schmidt Tamney, has been identified in two of the exhibit’s paintings. Wendi, 49, says her mother, who once owned two Reiffel landscapes, had to sell one to pay for Wendi’s college education.

Also at the opening was Jack Johnson, descendant of another sister of Reiffel, who died in 1942.

Crash takeoff: Saturday wasn’t the best of days for San Diego’s Team Anchorman in San Francisco’s Red Bull Flugtag race. Its homemade aircraft fell apart even before leaving the launch deck, giving the team a flight distance of 0 feet and a last-place finish. This wasn’t all bad news for pilot Ben Schuler, though. It saved him from a 30-foot plunge into chilly San Francisco Bay waters.